It's been a long time since we've posted any news about this game, in fact our last post back in June was calling for your votes for the Golden Joystick Awards.

Well, that award ceremony happened today and is now all over. The event was not as successful as Rockstar might have hoped, though they did walk away with the Golden Joystick for Handheld Game of the Year which is quite an achievement.

Once again a Grand Theft Auto game has been nominated in various categories at the prestigious Golden Joystick Awards. The awards which are the biggest prize up for grabs in the UK videogame industry, will take place on October 27th.

Of the 16 categories, Liberty City Stories has nominations in five of those; Ultimate Game Of The Year, Soundtrack Award, PlayStation Game Of The Year, Handheld Game Of The Year and Multiplay Game Of The Year.

As well as these nominations, Rockstar Games are included in the Publisher Of The Year, and Grand Theft Auto IV is included in the One To Watch For 2007

Much of our US readership will now be enjoying Liberty City Stories on their PS2. And a lot of our worldwide readership may well have received the GTA mailing list email by now. If you haven't yet received it, or didn't bother reading it all, you won't have seen that Rockstar have updated the official site...

Visit the official Liberty City Stories website at www.rockstargames.com/libertycitystories for online e-tail options as well as to check out the all-new PlayStation 2 version trailer and selection of new and exclusive screenshots.

IGN brought you that trailer yesterday, and have now also put up a video review, amongst other content such as a guide.

After IGN posted their "hands-on" the other day, they've now posted an actual review of the game and are the first website to do so. The game is officially released across the North American continent tomorrow.

I covered most of the 'new' features when summing up the hands on preview last Friday. To summarise yet again, the improvements we have are slightly longer draw distance, slightly improved frame rate, and higher number of concurrent objects on screen.As well as this we have the far superior control over Toni, as this time we now have the two extra shoulder buttons and right analogue stick on the PS2's controller.

You probably aren't bothered with the review now but IGN have posted a further 5 screenshots so take a look at them. Links below.

IGN have got their dirty little hands on the PS2 version of Liberty City Stories. They basically don't have anything negative to say about it, aside from the evident lack of multiplayer features. Which Rockstar supposedly said they removed as "it didn't fit in with the story."

IGN claim in their preview that it will take the average gamer around 15-20 hours to play straight though, just completing the main storyline and not bothering with side missions or other objectives.One big plus for the PS2 version over the PSP is the far superior controls, thanks to the PS2 controller's extra shoulder buttons and pair of analogue sticks, the controls are just like those of the previous iterations. One other advantage is the fact you'll be playing on a bigger screen too.

Interestingly, IGN state that nothing in terms of the graphics has been improved, it is all exactly the same as the PSP version, apart from very slight enhancements to framerate, draw distance, and the number of objects on screen.

Visually, the game looks almost the same as it does on PSP. None of the vehicles, characters or environments benefit from enhanced details or graphical effects. As such, LCS on consoles can't really compete with today's higher-end games in terms of visual detail, but what it lacks in effects it tries to make up in style. Interestingly, the game does offer a slight improvement in performance. Though not immediately noticeable, the framerate is slightly smoother, the draw distance is a little longer, and the amount of onscreen has been slightly raised. You'll notice more cars and pedestrians when driving through town, for example.

As well as the preview, IGN have also posted 8 new screenshots and the official PS2 trailer. You can check all these out by clicking the links below. Hopefully Rockstar will send us some unwatermarked screens soon though.

Also I'd like to point out that the trailer still has the June 6th release date for North America, it is literally just Europe that is affected by a two-week delay. Which currently has no valid reason.

Some mis-informed fansites are saying LCS has been delayed worldwide, while others are giving incorrect release dates. So to reiterate, here are the official release dates:North America: June 6thEurope: June 23rd